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The weekend is here! If you’re looking for something to watch, we can help. We’ve dug through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ to find some of the best titles on each service. STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Left-Handed Girl’
The title of Shih-Ching Tsou’s new drama is a bit of a fake-out; the title character is little I-Jing (the delightful Nina Ye), whose superstitious grandfather insists that her left-handedness is the work of “the devil.” (When she takes up shoplifting, she blames it on her evil left hand.) But it’s really the story of her big sister, I-Ann (Shih-yuan Ma), and mother, Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai), both doing their best for themselves and their family under desperate and compromised circumstances. Sean Baker, whose film “Anora” reaped multiple Oscars, is credited as the editor and a writer in “Left-Handed Girl,” which, like his films, immerses the viewer in a scene, the little world of the Taipei night market where these women work, fight and keep their secrets. Our critic called it “ a delicately observed story of social struggle.” These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Minx’
Set in the freewheeling early 1970s Los Angeles publishing industry, this raunchy comedy has Ophelia Lovibond playing Joyce, a feminist journalist who gets to create the feisty, politically provocative magazine of her dreams — so long as she is willing to include photo spreads of naked men. Jake Johnson plays Doug, a successful pornographer who mentors Joyce, a proudly independent woman embarrassed to admit the troubles she has had adjusting to the age of sexual liberation. Our critic noted that the show “has a playful feel for how the politics of an era gets exposed — in this case, fully frontally — by its pulp culture.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘How I Met Your Mother’
Three-camera network sitcoms with a laugh track rarely attempt narrative ambition or structural experimentation, which was part of what made this long-running CBS comedy so refreshing. Its central premise — a dad telling his teenagers the long and involved story from which the show takes its title — allowed the creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas to tinker amusingly with narration, format and style. But beyond those flourishes, it was also an excellent traditional sitcom, featuring a gifted “Friends”-style ensemble cast (Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel and Cobie Smulders). Our critic praised the show’s “patented balance of sentiment and sly self-awareness.” Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘After the Hunt’
The words “cancel culture” are never uttered in Luca Guadagnino’s new drama. But that’s undeniably the subject of this story of a rape accusation in the Yale philosophy department that prompts a moment of reckoning and examination for everyone involved. Nora Garrett’s thoughtful script doesn’t stack the deck, and takes pains to avoid easy assumptions; she sets up all sorts of competing stakes, overlapping interests and stray provocations. The entire cast is superb, but this is some of Julia Roberts’s best film work to date, a masterful characterization that seeks out and seizes on the shadings and contradictions of a complicated woman. It occasionally veers into the didactic; most of the time, it’s refreshing to see a modern movie address these hot-button issues with such nuance. Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘The Alabama Solution’
With press access restricted because of “security” concerns, the appalling conditions within the Alabama prison system have festered in the dark, obscuring reports of massive overcrowding, inmate abuse and shocking rates of drug addiction and violence. Yet the prisons have not been able to curtail the flow of contraband cellphones, giving the makers of “The Alabama Solution” the opportunity to tell this story from the inside out. Using the possible murder of an inmate as a through-line, Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman’s multilayered documentary tours a corrupt and dangerous system while supporting the efforts of incarcerated leaders who seek legal relief. Alissa Wilkinson believes the film’s vitality comes from “how it illuminates the sheer force of a video from inside a prison.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘Elton John: Never Too Late’
Over two nights in 1975, Elton John electrified a sold-out Dodger Stadium in a sequined baseball uniform, asserting himself as a pop superstar much as the Beatles had in the same stadium in 1966. The documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late,” directed by R.J. Cutler (“The War Room”) and John’s husband, David Furnish, comes full circle, with John returning to Los Angeles for his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, celebrating a storied career as a musician and performer. The occasion naturally opens up opportunities for John to reflect on his journey, and even when it seems too slickly packaged, there’s a somber, authentically bittersweet feeling that pokes through. Alissa Wilkinson believes it’s “heartfelt and charming in a way films like this can’t usually pull off.” The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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